Black History Bootcamp. S7. Day 18.
Pleasure Principle 18
Give Grace (Then Give Them Hell)
Pleasure Muse: Rosa Parks
Tantalizing Trivia
Her future husband took her on a first date to a rally for the “Scottsboro Boys”, nine Black men who were wrongly accused of rape. From that rally, she became compelled to activism.
She was educated on civil disobedience during her days at the famed Highlander School in Tennessee under the guidance of the legendary Septima Clark. Later she attended a leadership training run by the famed Ella Baker.
She was a staunch supporter of the labor movement and managed the office of E. D. Nixon the director of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and President of the NAACP. Rosa Parks became the secretary of the NAACP in Alabama in 1948.
She functioned as an investigator for the NAACP and helped the Committee for Equal Justice. She was also the youth advisor.
She learned “daily stretching” from her mother as a child and would later in her 50’s develop a daily yoga practice that she shared with her nieces and nephews.
In the mid 90’s she was attacked by an assailant in her home. When the media began reporting this as a failing of the Black community, she pushed back hard by offering that the attack was endemic of the systematic problems she spent her life working on and not that of Black people.
She lived to be 92 years old. Flags across the country flew at half-staff on the day of Park’s funeral.
Mirror Work: Find a quiet place to sit. Get comfortable. Let the chair do the work of holding you. Plan to be here for 10 minutes. In that time observe your breath without judgment. Is it shallow? Is it deep? What areas of your body does it flow to? Where could you use more breath? Breathe deeply into those spaces. Luxuriate in the fact that you do not have to stand, do not have to move. You have been given this moment to sit still and just be. Thank God for that.
Affirmation:
I can sit and rest. No need to rush.
I am where God wants me to be. I am open to where God wants to take me.
I give grace freely. I receive grace daily.
Give Grace: A Playlist
In Her Own Words:
“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”
“Each person must live their life as a model for others.”
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free…so other people would also be free.”
“I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.”
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